A Contemporary Living & Dining Room Update

When I first walked into Gemma’s space, I was actually a little confused. I wasn’t sure what she needed my help with… As you can see, she has great taste, and her love for a more contemporary style in neutral colors was, in my opinion, right on track. After a long chat, I realized that she didn’t need too much, but had been struggling with cozying up the space, so we focused on a few key things before making any changes.

We first started off by switching up the sideboard and the dining room hutch. I thought that the hutch was adding far too much visual weight to the back of the room, so switching it up and adding a mirror on top of the sideboard would help “lighten” the look. I had seen a gorgeous dining room with 3 long mirrors on Pinterest, and thought that this was the perfect spot for them, so we asked Arabian Collections Gallery to custom make a set of 3 for us in pewter colored frames.

As you can see from the before picture as well, her wall paint was already gray, but it had very strong undertones of blue (not as obvious in these pictures though), and was clashing with her gray furniture. We repainted the wall a gray that had a little less blue in it, and was a bit more of a true gray (very similar to Benjamin Moore’s Balboa Mist,) so that it worked better with the rest of the furnishings.

The TV unit needed to be longer to fill the wall, so we extended it by purchasing the exact same unit from Gautier and adding it to the existing unit (already purchased in the above picture). To cover the tech stuff, we used a detachable shelf that is also a part of the original media unit set. I love that you can’t even tell that it’s two separate units! I also felt like the room needed some family pictures, so we had Arabian Collections Gallery custom make some frames, and local EP photographer Allison Redmon’s absolutely incredible family photos of Gemma’s family were used in them!

The couch was moved closer to the TV, and the framed picture behind it was moved down a few inches. We then added 2 of my all-time favorite armchairs from West Elm for more seating with a small accent table, and a side table was added next to the couch with a sleek floor lamp from The ONE in Bahrain. I also thought the room needed more plants and greenery, so we added real rubber plants as well as faux succulents. The rug in the living room needed to be much larger as well. We wanted a solid gray rug that was 11×11 ft. (tough to find), so Gemma had the brilliant idea of going to Almira Center in Dammam to have a carpet cut for the room instead of trying to find a very rare size!

With just a few other accessories from Gemma’s home, Zara Home and Pottery Barn, some somewhat minor changes to the room turned out to be just what it needed…

| AFTER |

I hope you enjoyed seeing this fabulous space! It’s such a perfect example of how some small key changes in a home can really help take it to the next level. It doesn’t always have to be about buying new things or getting rid of your old stuff. Just make sure to give your pieces purpose to work them into the room!

For more room transformations, make sure to check the Projects page!